Marks & Spencer has warned that labeling goods sold in Northern Ireland separately would not be a workable change to the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The Protocol is the post-Brexit agreement that Northern Ireland holds in the EU’s single market for goods.
The UK and EU are negotiating ways to improve their operations.
Both have previously suggested that labeling could play a role in reducing physical inspections.
M&S leader Archie Norman has written to the Foreign Secretary to warn that labeling would mean “excessive and prohibitive costs” for retailers.
In July 2021, the UK government proposed that “adequate labeling requirements so that goods can only be sold in the UK” should be part of a radical plan to ease controls on British goods, particularly food, entering Northern Ireland.
This was echoed by the EU in October 2021, which said a condition for the reduction in controls and paperwork was that goods be labeled “at the individual end-user pack level with words such as ‘products sold only in the UK’ Need to become ‘”.
However, M&S said this would create difficulties for companies selling outside the UK, particularly to the Republic of Ireland.
The letter states that products for export would require separate production runs, packaging and separate warehouses.
It added that such a requirement would “completely undermine the all-Ireland supply we have put in place to circumvent the current problems”.
The letter states that a Northern Ireland specific labeling would create similar problems “requiring dedicated production runs and segregated stock levels for around 7-9% of our volume and incurring costs for packaging changes on each production run”.
Mr Norman said that any solution must be fully digital, adding that “retailers are already working with real-time digital information – day or night, at the touch of a button we can locate our products, whether it’s in a depot, on the road or in a store “.
“In a digital age – when a customer can check into the store and find their order in less than 60 seconds with the tap of a mobile phone, it’s bewildering that the government and the EU have rewound four decades to come up with an expensive ‘solution’ to discuss with stickers & labelling,” he said.
It is understood that the UK has not ruled out a role for labeling as it sees this as standard practice for all food retailers.
“The Protocol is causing real problems in Northern Ireland. These include trade disruptions and diversion, significant costs and red tape for traders,” a government spokesman said.
“We prefer to resolve these issues through talks and the government is engaged in constructive dialogue with the EU to find solutions.”
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